In the arrangement of the patterns an architectural instinct is clearly at work, the influence of the Doric metope being especially prominent. They are usually arranged, as the diagram (Fig. 83) shows, in horizontal bands round the neck and body, like the bands of painted ornament on the entablature of a temple. The metopes and triglyphs are represented by large square patterns of ornament, separated by narrow vertical strips of simpler motives (cf. Fig. 84). The introduction of the frieze principle proper is a later development. Generally speaking, there is an invariable tendency towards symmetry and refinement in the arrangement. When figure subjects begin to be introduced, it betokens a great advance in decorative art, especially over the Cypriote and other varieties of the style. In the tendency to a _horror vacui_, the style is inferior to Mycenaean, as also in the figure-drawing, of which more anon. The absence of any plant-ornament is most characteristic, as showing the great change from the Mycenaean spirit; but it was not long before this element was destined to reappear and virtually usurp the field of decoration.[946] [Illustration: From _Perrot’s Hist. de l’Art_. FIG. 83. SCHEME OF ORNAMENTATION ON GEOMETRICAL VASES. ] In regard to its ornamentation the Geometrical style may be said to have attained success. It is not so, however, with its representations of living form, least of all those of human beings. But this is only in accordance with the principle which M. Pottier styles the _hierarchie des genres_, a principle which is universal in all early development of Greek art, and to which we have already referred (p. 245: see also p. 315). Briefly it is this: first, the predominance of pure _ornament_ and the perfecting of the same; secondly, the employment of _animal_ forms and the relegation of ornament to a subsidiary place; thirdly and lastly, the rise and development of _human_ forms, the other animals ceasing to form the main theme of decoration, and sinking to the level of mere decorative adjuncts. [Illustration: FIG. 84. GEOMETRICAL VASE WITH PANELS (BRIT. MUS.).] Hence we find that figures of animals when first introduced on Geometrical vases are of a conventional and ill-drawn character, but show a gradual progress and development. Human forms again, which now appear for the first time, are only seen in a very rude and undeveloped stage, from which there is continuous development throughout the archaic period till perfection is reached in the fifth century. Their original extreme conventionality may be the result of a training in Egyptian canons of art.